Nukes = extinction pretty much sums it up. But in game it doesnt, I have played games where each side steadily nuked each other 3-5 times each turn forever. I nuke and advance, they nuke and retake. The front line cities had been bombed 5+ times, then there are the home cities nuked repeatedly. Build a nuke bunker, and few farms, pop comes back and your golden. Nuclear war and I can still grow pop faster then can draft? Crack the whip to get critical buildings back? Nukes are seriously underpowered. To qoute myself, nukes should be awesome, epic, end of the world weapons. Not overpowered cruise missiles to be shot off whenever the urge comes on. Yet in every game they arent. Fire off another dozen...
I strongly disagree. It could be argued that single ICBM's are weaker than in real life due to balance reasons. But a lasting nuclear war will eventually devastate the entire world.
One of my most epic multiplayer games was a nuclear war in which I teamed up with my neighbour towards the end against a guy who had more than twice our points combined. By working together econimically and focusing on different tech lines, my ally was able to get to nukes, while I defended us with ground troops. A nuclear war began, which lasted for many dozen (perhaps over 100) turns. We both stopped research and I regularly passed him all my gold for him to buy new nukes. I won't go into the details of the war, I could easily write many pages. The other guy's land was huge, and so was his military. Very early, our cities had to be left defenseless, each unit built scrambled forward to the remains of a front line, to desperately try to gain some time against his armies. Through the constant nuking of his cities and troops, and occasional invasions with infantry, knights(!) and galleons, we were slowly but surely able to absorb his attacks and weaken him, and eventually got the upper hand.
But at what cost! At the end of the war, when our enemy finally resigned, basically the entire world was a desert. Nuclear fallout covered the land. Our once thriving megacities had been reduced to pop 2-4. Production had become more or less meaningless long ago, and buying an occasional unit was the only way to go, which our economies, though totally broken together, still provided just enough income to do. If I ever had something resembling a "total war" in Civ, it was in this game.
To sum up, the devastating effect of a nuclear war is not just the destruction caused by the nukes themselves. The resulting global warming is the true crux, which has much larger and lasting effects than the initial damage. These two factors combined, I don't believe nukes could ever be considered too weak.
of ICBMs.
